After graduating from Harvard University in 1910, Shepley attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was a member of the atelier Laloux. He returned to the United States in 1914 and soon embarked upon a long and successful career as an architect. His designs included numerous buildings for universities and hospitals including the Engineering School at Northeastern University in Boston, and the Hemenway Gymnasium, Littauer Building, and Fogg Art Museum at Harvard. In 1933 he received the Gold Medal of the New York Architectural League for his designs for New York Hospital and soon after her was appointed to the Federal Commission of Fine Arts by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a senior partner in the Boston architectural firm of Shepely, Bullfinch, Richardson & Abbott. In 1961, he received the Medal of Officer Orange Nassau from the Dutch government for his design of the American cemetery and memorial chapel at Margraten in the Netherlands.
